FRAGILE VASTNESS

This is one of the best greek prog (and probably generally) bands. After their quite impressive debut "Excerpts" in 2002, their second album came as a very pleasant surprise. The strong influences from well known prog metal bands (in "Excerpts") are blended in a superb mix which is dominated by the band's own character. This is real prog metal with very interesting rhythm shifting, a very good production, great samplings and loops. In my opinion, the most oustanding element in this concept album is the folk (mainly greek and latin) melodies which are very precisely scattered in the album. The voice and the bass of the legendary Fates Warning (undoubtly the main influence of Fragile Vastness) are present in this album. Ray Alder and Joey Vera contribute to one song each ("Love And Loss" & "Ya Va Illegando El Dia" respectively) as special guests. Favourite tracks: "Somewhere", "Renaissance", "Coma". "Going Down" is artistically perfect (really creepy...)

Excellent addition to any prog music collection

Superb second album of this unknown prog metal band from Greece from 2005. While first album was an usual prog metal album , their second one is a real treat for prog metal listners. They realy done it with this album named Tribute to life. Ths is a concept double album about a man who is in his last 2 month of his life because he has cancer, yes a real story here , that must be listen very carefuly to understand the core of this unique album. Well now about the music, they are between Pain of Salvation and Dream Theater in places, but also a lot of other influences like, traditional greek music, south american traditional music like peruvian, but the main part of their music is prog metal. So is hard to extract one piece from the whole concept to be the best but the opening track the instrumental Where Everything Began is excellent and shows what strong this album begun and with big surprises 'till the end like Ya Va Illegando El Dia or From East To West , the rest are also very ok. All in all a solid album , kinda surprisingly for me, because they are totaly unknown in prog metal field, and what an album, great. 4 stars for sure for A tribute to life, another example that shows that you don't have to be a big name in prog metal to release a super album - Fragile Vastness done it. Well done guys. We hope, or at least I hope that this is not the last album they ever done. Recommended

I think this album is very well achived. It es very eclectic and it pulls of the changes well. Songs are well composed and enjoyable from beginning to end. As is to be expected, the musicians are all excellent instrumentalists. Though I tend to find these kind of vocalists slightly annoying nowadays (I used to listen to a lot of heavy and power metal), this guy is a very good singer and has a wide range. The first song grabs you right from the beginning and, funnily enough, I just felt a slight tremor while listening to one of the heavier sections, pretty fun. The songs range from heavy riffing and double bass to tasteful piano and samples. I especially enjoy the instrumental song "Flying Over Nazca" which makes very good use of the bass guitar. The spoken parts in Spanish suprised me the first time and are kind of funny if you're Chilean and have been hearing about the condor (it's on our coat of arms!) and the Andes all your life. The final track, a jazz song with femal vocals, brings it all to a nice end. All in all this can be a very enjoyable album, albeit not a work of genius.

FRAGILE VASTNESS are another band coming out of the newer progressive metal scene along with WASTEFALL and ART OF SIMPLICITY...And what a surprise,they are influeced by PAIN OF SALVATION as their fellows...In their debut they try to create a personal style of playing without achieving it as they sound a lot like POS...Of course the musicianship is excellent and very derivative with a lot of styles starting from mellow moments,getting to a sound close to FATES WARNING and flirting also with a more hardcore sound like FAITH NO MORE...Zacharias Tsoumos' voice is also good,raging from operatic vocals to angry ones without big mistakes in singing...All in all,this is a very strong debut but very unpersonal so I think the most appropriate rating would be 3 stars...If this band develops a more original sound,we will have to deal with a really good act of prog metal...

A Tribute to Life is from the Greek band Fragile Vastness. Fans of Pain of Salvation would do well to search this band out. They are not copies but are influenced by Pos. Metal passages with a double guitar assault are interspersed with many calmer parts and songs, many of them very beautiful. Some of these are piano driven but they also throw a Latin vibe into the mix from time to time. I heard a bit of the Far East in there as well with certain wind instruments. The world music is pretty limited but I point it out to tell of the different ideas these guys to the table with. They did not set out to make a straight ahead prog-metal album. The keyboards are not used just for atmosphere but are given space in many of the songs. The acoustic guitar is used very nicely. The singer has a resemblance to Daniel Gildenlow and has a good voice. The production is spot on. There are strings, bongos, clarinets, etc. and a host of guest singers and musicians to really make the whole effort a truly diverse offering.

This is a concept album and the band put a lot of effort into building a story. Whether that translates to your listening experience I guess depends on how closely you follow the lyrics. The second song is really just a spoken word piece but if you have a daughter (I have two), it will certainly have you welling up while it sets up the concept of the father with cancer. I won't get into the details as they have been outlined better elsewhere.

This is a double CD but they probably could have gotten it onto one. I don't say that because parts should have been deleted, rather, they stretched it out with some crazy bonus tracks. There are 47 of them on CD 2, most being 6 seconds of silence. There are a couple of songs (one a alternate version of Heart of a Lion) interspersed with some parts where they try and sound like an amateur radio station, introducing the bonus tracks. A bit frivolous and it makes for a weird ending after the heavy content of the album proper. Some listeners may want to skip these if they just want to listen to the concept album as is.

My CD came in a double gatefold with two booklets and some nice artwork. The lyrics are done as if they are a diary. The second booklet gives the details of the story. The type could have been a bit larger on this but it is well done and a "food for thought" kind of thing.

This is easily a four star album and Pos fanatics might bump it up to five. I am not a huge Pos freak so I can only go with four but with nary a gripe about the whole package. If you were put off by Scarsick and need some diverse Prog Metal and like concept albums, you should look to get this disk. Well done and if the band continues on, they have a bright future.

Not as good as "A tribute to life", but is a good prog. metal cd. The cd doesn't has too many influences as we can see on ATTL, but still has some "strange" melodies as we can see on "Flying over nazca".

It's an introduction to what is coming on the next album, I see that they have some great parts, and a lot of "copy & paste" parts which I don't like. Also the sound is quite different, and also there is other guy in the voices, so if you liked the voice on ATTL this can sound a bit different.

Not a very good CD, but I think that it has good moments.

MASTERPIECE. That's how I define this album. Fragile Vastness does a really great job in this album, you will find that even prog. metal is the base of this album, it takes place to other directions like andine rythms or oriental melodies. Which I love.

The History is about a man who gets cancer and he has 2 months of life. He sell everything he got and he start to travel around the world to find why he had cancer if he had been a good man. In South America he knows a woman and he falls in love. Then you will have 2 points on the history, for one side the man suffering his last days and on the otherside, he will be suffering also the "pain" of loving someone in this conditions. Finally he have a daughter, Maya.

The CD1 starts with "Where Everything Begun", excellent intro track, the most "progmetal". A very nice riff with a nice work on the keyboards. "Maya's Diary" is an opening to the history, when the daughter is grew and she wants to know his father. Now, we "get back" in time to hear "Somewhere". A very nice track, very simple (technically) but very aggressive, you can feel the fear and hate of this man for his cancer.

"Ya va llegando el día" (The day is coming) opens with a peruvian ryth, the drums enter in "anytempo" and the track starts. A very nice one..I like the end of this track.

"From east to west" is maybe on of the best tracks. It's like a metal prog. track, but less prog than metal. With a nice oriental introduction. "Failthe Romhat a Chara" is a really nice instrumental track, is short, but very emotive.

Then "Love and Loss" comes and this is "the hit" of the band, is a very well made track, a nice riff, nice lyrics...nice everything. And then, "Help!", Yes! The beatle's song. The CD1 ends with "The Sun shines for all of us", a rare track to end a cd, but a very nice one...

The CD2 starts with "Heart of a lion", prog. metal opening track. I have nothing to say, it's a very good track. "Gaia" is "the ballad" of this cd. Very nice, emotive one. "Renaissance" is an instrumental track with some greek rythms, I don't like this one like the other instrumental songs, but is nice indeed.

"I want to do something that matters" in my opinion is the best track. It resumes progressive metal with "the touch" that this band gives to every track. It's incredible. "Going Down" is an "instrumental" track where you'll find the madness of the protagonist, he will have a fight with his own mind (seducing him to commit suicide).

"Coma" is a very nice passage with an "rare" end, I like this one. "Don't wake me up 'till I'm death" is the last track of this man, you will find him surrended and ready to death but with the last desire...to see his daughter before he deads.

"Maya" is the ending track, very emotive, instrumental... If you have the original CD you will find a few surprises after that ;).

Nice CD, excellent metal prog. piece! Sounds like Pain of Salvation sometimes, but I think they're really originals.